1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to communications and data processing patch cords and cables used in telephone systems, computer networking systems including ethernet connections, and for other electronic cabling systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
Communications and computer networking systems generally utilize cabling complying with certain standards such as ethernet or other related cabling standard protocols. Many buildings utilize networking cable which conforms to an ethernet standard utilizing what is commonly known as Category 5 (“Cat 5”) Wire standards or higher. Telephone systems such as electronic telephone switches and private branch exchanges may utilize similar cabling known as Category 3 (“Cat 3”) Wire. In all of the categories commonly available for communications cabling or networking patch cords, modular type plugs are used at each end of one particular branch in order to connect the cabling from a device such as a telephone or a computer network card, to an area where patch panels are supplied to allow flexibility in the cabling topography in any one location. Such cable installations are commonly referred to “premise wiring” being the cabling that is permanently installed throughout the building as part of the building utility or information infrastructure and ultimately is consolidated to a MDF (main data frame/facility) or several IDF's (intermediate data frames/facilities connecting to the MDF in larger facilities) where the consolidated patch panels are located as well as centrally located data devices needing to be connected to the premise wiring. Premise wiring is fixed in nature, that is, once installed, such wiring is dedicated to identified or defined locations within the premises.
Networking closets where connecting cabling generally converges can be difficult to manage in middle to large scale installations where there may be dozens, and perhaps hundreds of cable converging in a closet where patch panels are utilized to allow flexibility in connections and reconfiguration of the networking layout. In most telephone communications and networking wiring closets (referred to MDF or IDF), there are multiple devices which include switches, routers, hubs, servers, telecommunications equipment and other devices which all are connected using conventional patch panels. Patch panels, usually a starting point of the premises wiring, allow flexibility in the interconnection of the physical wires that are run through the facility being served. The wires used in such installations are intended to deliver data and voice to the various locations throughout a physical environment, such as an office building, multiple building campus or the like.
Patch panels and data devices must be connected together via a cable length commonly referred to as a “patch cable”. Commonly, the cables running through the physical plant or building converging on a given network closet number in the hundreds and are typically of like design, length and color, without any distinctive identifying marks. Even if various colors are used to designate the difference between telephone cabling, computer network cabling or video cabling, it is still difficult to differentiate between the groups of cable within one category.
In a modest office building, for example, with thirty-five different offices within the building, there can be at least thirty-five different network cables converging on a network cable closet, as well as thirty-five or more telephone cables and other communications or data cables which may include video cabling also. In such installations all of the premises wiring is run to a termination point, being the patch panel or several patch panels at either an MDF or an IDF. From the patch panel, patch cables are run to the appropriate devices commonly located in the networking closet which may be standard rack configured equipment or devices such as the hubs, routers, computers, remote disk drives or even the servers themselves. In the simplest terms, a patch cable, as referenced in this application, can be thought of as an extension cord to plugging in the phone or the computer from the termination point on the patch panel to the ultimate device being connected to each individual computer or telephone.
In such a cabling environment the cables are normally bundled together and run through a series of cable management devices which can be wire ties, hooks, cable trays and other conduits to get the cables from the device in a particular office to the patch panel in the networking closet. Connections are not permanent and they often need to be moved between various devices on demand or to reconfigure the data processing network or telephone system being used. The very reason patch panels exist are to allow reconfiguration of the cables without the need to permanently rewire the end of the cable terminating in the wire or cable closet. One particular connection from the networking closet must go to a specific location in the building to correlate to the intended use for a telephone or a particular network device such as a laptop or desktop computer.
Currently a popular way to keep track of the corresponding ends of a particular physical cable is to run one cable at a time and create a physical written log that references where each cable starts and finishes. Such a log would reference connection points, not the cables themselves. For example, a log may say that patch panel port #1 goes to switch #3, port #5, and is used for data. This is repeated hundreds of times and this conventional effort at keeping track of the topography or configuration of the physical wiring in a given building becomes a problem. Not only is it time consuming, it's sometimes inaccurate, and it is not always a permanent reference.
Also, under normal circumstances, if the log gets lost, or the writer makes a mistake, or if any changes are made in the wiring closet that are not documented (a common situation), one must start the entire process over. Such a process also does not account for the addition of new devices to the network closet or to the device or equipment rack contained therein, additional premise wiring being installed and needing to be patched into the system, individual patch cabling replacement due to upgrade or failure (which would need to be completed one cable at a time to maintain or create a log), or a network device being removed.
It is also possible to place hang tags on the end of cables, or to put bands on the cable which have a number corresponding to the same cable at each end. For example, a given cable can be marked “D-30” on each end of the cable so that one would be able to search through a bundle looking for the same reference at the other end of the cable. This is time consuming in itself, and labels fall off, are difficult to find within a thick bundle of cables, and otherwise are occasionally misread if they are reviewed upside-down and must be addressed on a one by one basis.
A common example of errors in log keeping might be that if a network cabling technician is requested to take ports 100 through 105 on a given patch panel which may be currently assigned to a telephone device, and switch them over to a data device, then the wiring log does not accurately reflect where the cables on ports 100 to 105 are plugged in. Such an event is common in buildings where there may be limited numbers of ports available into a given room. A conference room may need to temporarily reassign jacks from telephone use to data use for multiple computers in presentations or other temporary needs. On the other end of each cable, one has to physically verify the routing of each individual cable. This may entail unplugging each cable one at a time and following it through the hundreds of cables in the wire management devices to determine where it terminates on the other end, and what equipment it may be plugged into. This is and has been a time consuming task for many wiring technicians and network administrators.
The most commonly found wiring scheme in most physical cabling layouts today are the Category 3, 5 and 6 cabling for which the standards are well known in a variety of uses for telecommunications and ethernet networking. The ubiquitous ethernet plug termination device is known as an RJ45 modular connector which is used for Category 3, Category 5 and Category 6 wiring. The typical unshielded twisted pair (UTP) or shielded twisted pair (STP) category cables have eight wires or conductors, which comprise four pairs of wires. Each pair can consist of a solid color wire and a white and color striped wire of the same color to designate the pair. Each of the pairs are twisted together to utilize noise cancellation and to prevent radiation of a signal as is a required characteristic of ethernet cabling.
The pairs designated for conventional 10BaseT ethernet or 100BaseT ethernet are orange and green in a typical Category 5 cable. The other two pairs in the cable, brown and blue, are unused for virtually all applications. The two wiring standards for these cables are called T-568A and T-568B. These standards differ only in pin assignments, not in the uses of the various colors in the standard code. The T-568A specification reverses the orange and green connections, so that the blue and orange pairs are on the center four pins of a typical connector, which makes in more compatible with telephone voice connections. Although it should be noted that most off-the-shelf data equipment and cables seem to be wired for the T-568B standard, there is no difference in connectivity between the T-568B and the T-568A cables. Either wiring may be found in typical systems.
The eight conductor (four pairs) of wiring for a typical ethernet plug is terminated in the RJ45 (“Registered Jack45”) modular connector. There are eight connection pins in the RJ45 numbered accordingly. As mentioned above, there are four conductors (two pairs) that typically are not used at all in most applications. Virtually all of the patch cables used in category wiring are of the RJ45 type, although the smaller RJ-11 (“Registered Jack-11”) type connector is used for many telephone cabling and has four or six wire connections.
It would be useful to have a system in which it would be immediately apparent as to where the opposite end of a given patch cable currently connected to a patch panel may terminate. Although there are portable devices which can be plugged into cable jacks to send tones, and other signals which may be received on the opposite end of a connector or panel by plugging in a corresponding test device, there is a need for an integrated system which is built in to a given patch cable and does not require external connections, test equipment or other complicated testing protocol. Many of the test devices now used in confirming network cable and patch panel performance still require that the user find the other end of a patch cable to test the connection anyway.
It is, accordingly, the object of the present invention to present a means to identify and locate the opposite end of a data or telecommunications patch cord without removing the cord from service and without applying any external apparatus.
It is also an object of the present invention to present a means to integrate a cable end identification system within a given ethernet or telecommunications patch cord.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a computer patch cord cable system which contains an internal power supply integrated into a modular plug on the cable, with a modular plug on the opposite end of the cable containing an integrated light signaling means operatively connected through the patch cable to the power supply which may be selectively activated to provide recognition of the matching ends of the said patch cable.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a modular plug in the form of a RJ45 style connector for use in ethernet and other networking environments which contain an integrated cable end identification system within the connector to allow for direct retrofit or new cable construction which may be used in an existing ethernet environment without any need to change the configuration of the system wiring.